Title

Toxicville

Overview

In this lesson students will ready and study more about cancer and cancer cells. Students will read an article which describes communities in the United States that have been affected by high rates of cancer. The alleged causes for these cancers are environmental pollutants and industrial chemicals. Students will then read information about cancer written by scientists which describes hereditary factors that contribute to cancer development. Finally, students will read about some probable carcinogens and the risk factors for cancer. At the end of this lesson, students should be able to distinguish that there are both environmental and hereditary factors which influence a person's likelihood in developing cancer. Students will read the Toxicville article and answer questions on based on their readings.

Objectives

Students will be able to...
  • use readings evidence to answer questions
  • explain how cancer can be caused by hereditary and environmental factors
  • evaluate life examples to help answer questions


Materials / Preparation Notes

  • Toxicville article
  • student answer sheet

Instruction


Opening

To begin class I will ask students based on their knowledge...

  • What is cancer?
  • Where have you heard of cancer?
  • Who gets cancer?
  • What causes cancer?
I will then pass out the toxicville articles and answer sheets.


Activities



Students will read the article and answer the questions individually. I will monitor the class for working being done. When the class is finished I will then split the class into smaller groups and have them discuss their findings on the article. After I have given them about 15 min to discuss I will then address the class as a whole and ask their opinions of the article.

Closing


After the class has finished their work I will discuss the fact that there are many types of cancer since cancer can develop in virtually any one of the body's tissues. Also point out that no race/gender/ethnicity/age group is excluded from developing cancer. When discussing question four, ask students to differentiate between hereditary and environmental causes of cancer.


Assessment Notes

Students will hand in their student work sheets for a classwork/participation grade.

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